Jacob Collier
In My Room

I have always been someone who, musically speaking, has found the "plectrum" in the egg in everything I have done, seen, or heard, but after inserting "In My Room," Jacob Collier's first album, into my CD player, my world has irrevocably changed.

It has changed because the album in question (released on July 1, 2016, by Qwest) is, in my opinion, perfect in every part.

The voice is Jacob Collier, a 23-year-old singer from London with taste in his entire vocal range, featuring deep lows and Gallant-like falsettos. On piano, keyboards, and vocoder/harmonizer, there's Jacob Collier, an English pianist inspired by Art Tatum with crystal-clear talent. Also from Great Britain comes Jacob Collier, bassist and double bassist capable of bowing notes as well as crafting heavily funky lines. It's not just them as musicians but also Jacob Collier on guitar, banjo, guitalele, ukulele, and Collier Jacob on drums and percussion (any percussive knickknacks).

This group of musicians created the album composed, arranged, and produced by... Jacob Collier.

Okay, I'll stop, but I'm not raving.

A multi-instrumentalist born in 1994, he is a child of the arts (his mother is a teacher, violinist, and conductor), definitely destined for greatness, and a reproducer and implementer of musical theories, following and expanding the theory of Ernst Levy, discussed with Herbie Hancock, on "negative harmony."

Immediately under the auspices of Quincy Jones, blessed by his mentor Stevie Wonder, who cried after hearing his cover of "You and I" (winner of the "best instrumental arrangement" award at the 2017 Grammy Awards), and indicated by Herbie Hancock as "a pure genius," he wanted to encapsulate in an album what he "habitually" produces in his bedroom. Who doesn't?

The covers: the aforementioned "You and I" by Stefanino Meraviglia is dazzling for its beauty and harmonic structure, "In My Room" by the Beach Boys from 1963 offers lyrical pianism and light dynamics, while the cover of the "Flintstones" by Hanna and Barbera (also a Grammy winner for "best a cappella arrangement" at the 59th edition of the Grammy Awards) is delightful, managing to blend Manhattan Transfer harmonies with Swing Out Sisters' bravado in a single person, not omitting a jaw-dropping melodica solo.

The original compositions: "Woke up Today" is an excellent track to introduce you to what you'll hear later, with funky moments, breaks, and exhilarating rhythms. "Hideaway" leads you into passionate melancholy, with vocal layering featuring a very wide vocal range, and the counter-tempos of guitar and guitalele are absolutely masterful. The song "Down the Line" is a prelude to the funkiest combo of the work, a musical melting pot: from an introduction resembling Take 6 to purely jazz moments, with pop variations and a Latin-American cameo. "Saviour" and "Hajanga" are brutally funky, animalistic in their way of hitting you in the chest and engaging you until you sway wherever you might be listening to them. The last two original compositions are "In the Real Early Morning" (humbly my favorite song), for which I strongly recommend listening to the version with the Metropole Orkest, and "Don't you know," a track that also has a version with Snarky Puppy and sousaphonist Big Ed Lee in "Family Dinner Vol. II." The first one features a melodic nod to Bob Seger ("We've got Tonight"), but it's the reflective atmosphere and an easily tear-jerking climax after the first 4' that makes it deep and personal; in the second track, closing the album, all the energy and passion of a terrifyingly complete musician emerge as never before known to me.

I have seen and heard things you humans have never even considered possible, but I can candidly admit that hearing and watching him live in his "One-man Show" in Correggio was one of the most invigorating, fulfilling, and ascetic experiences of my entire existence.

Jacob Collier is a beast